There is a growing requirement for repair and reconditioning of mobile electronic processing devices such as smart phones, phablets, tablet computers or the like in view of the high retail cost of many of these devices. Repair services normally assist individual consumers in making repairs to parts and components of their mobile electronic processing devices. A major area of repair is the screen glass, but other repairs such as replacement of batteries and even replacement of main processor boards are sometimes required. However, the fastest growing process area is the process of reconditioning discarded, returned or damaged devices in large volumes. A reconditioning process may involve a reconditioning facility receiving a batch of a very large number of discarded, returned or damaged devices from a customer such as, for example, a cellular network operator, an insurance provider or from other sources, to disassembling said devices, to cleaning, reconditioning, repairing and testing structural and operational components and parts (hereinafter referred to only as “components”) of the devices, and subsequently reassembling as many devices as can be recovered from the components comprising said received batch of devices. The yield of reconditioned devices from a large batch may be as high as 90% or even higher.
Often the processing facility receiving the discarded, returned or damaged devices in large volumes is located in a state or country remote from the state or country from which the discarded, returned or damaged devices have been sourced, e.g. the processing facility is located in a competitive wage country far from the country of operation of the cellular network operator, the insurance provider or other sources from which the discarded, returned or damaged devices have been obtained. Whilst performing the reconditioning process in a facility located in a competitive wage country reduces the cost per unit for a reconditioned device, it involves shipping the large volumes of devices from the source country to the processing facility country which greatly lengthens the period of time from sending a batch of discarded, returned or damaged devices from the source country to the processing facility and subsequently receiving back a batch of reconditioned operational devices. A further problem is that the unique identities of the devices being reconditioned are inoperational for at least the aforementioned period of time.
There is a need to more efficiently recondition such devices and return them to operation.